A Different Kind of Hero
by SalemAnderson
Summary: Roxanne and Megamind are quarantined in Roxanne's apartment due to a mutual illness and she is tasked with keeping him entertained so he doesn't drive her crazy while they recover.


**A/n: A sleepless night, then an interesting visit with my grandmother on her 80th birthday, followed by an afternoon of playing a video game I haven't played in months, and this story was the result! Silliness with a side of fluff. Hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything of Megamind other than my DVD, my soundtrack and my obsession! Nods to Dreamworks for this excellent addition to my collection.**

**Summary: Roxanne and Megamind are quarantined in Roxanne's apartment due to a mutual illness and she is tasked with keeping him entertained so he doesn't drive her crazy while they recover.**

A Different Kind of Hero

Two days ago, Roxanne learned that she was infected with the chicken pox. She had never had it as a child and when the little red welts started showing up on her skin, she didn't think anything of it. She'd just spent an entire weekend with her fiancé at a beautiful house they had rented on the lake for some peace and quiet. She just thought they were mosquito bites from being around the water. Her doctor gave her the bad news when they returned home.

Unfortunately for them both, she didn't know what she had until she had already given it to Megamind. His alien physiology had reacted similarly to hers, but not exactly the same. The welts on his skin were fewer, but much larger than the ones on her skin, and they were purple. Megamind was convinced he was going to be permanently covered by the ugly bumps that dotted his skin.

Because they were both infected with the same thing, and Minion did not want to catch "the pox," he had banished them from the lair and they were both in quarantine at Roxanne's apartment. Naturally, as with any illness of this kind, they were both massively inconvenienced, but not really sick.

"I'm bored," Megamind complained for the twentieth time. He slumped on the couch in front of her television, remote in hand, rapidly flipping through the channels. They had been locked up in the apartment for two days, mostly being happy that they had uninterrupted time together. But too much of a good thing is still too much.

"Well, what do you want to do?" Roxanne asked with a slight tone of annoyance. She loved him more than anything, but he could be such a baby sometimes. She didn't want to be annoyed with him, but she didn't want to be solely responsible for entertaining him either. They had watched four movies already that day and she really didn't want to watch another one so soon.

"I don't know, do you have any suggestions?" She sighed at his question, but knew that she would have to come up with something since it was her apartment they were cooped up in. Neither of them felt particularly sexy with the welts and all, so they had not spent much time doing intimate things during their mutual incarceration.

He kept at his incessant channel flipping for two more times through the channel list. The speed at which he was changing the channels made this take no time at all. Suddenly, he dropped the TV remote, winced and reached around to the back of his neck to scratch an offending welt.

"Baby, you can't scratch them like that," she scolded. "You remember what the doctor said. You will have scars if you don't leave them alone."

"But they itch," he whined, looking at her like a child with big innocent eyes.

"I know, but you have to resist scratching. Don't make me get out the socks!" she threatened him. His face registered abject horror, remembering the terrible sensation he had endured the previous night when she had put socks over his hands to stop him from scratching. He did not like being restrained in such a manner.

"No, not that! I'll be good, I promise!" he hastily put his hand in his lap, holding it there with the other one. The TV stopped on a home shopping channel and the salesman with the poufy hair excitedly talked about some product he was pushing. After a moment of tension, he relaxed and looked at her again with a sheepish smile on his face. "So, what to do now? Hmmm. Do you have any rock music we can listen to?"

She smiled, "Actually, yes, I have several CD's you'd probably like." She started to stand up from her position on the couch next to him and remembered something that could work to entertain him much longer than simply listening to music. Three Birthdays ago, she'd been on a rock music kick herself, probably because she was secretly attracted her then kidnapper-now fiancé and the music he used in executing his schemes, and she had wanted to do more than just listen.

Impulsively, she had bought herself a birthday present - a home gaming system and a game called "Guitar Hero World Tour" that came with a guitar shaped controller. She'd had loads of fun and played it for several weeks during her time off between work and kidnappings, before she beat the game and decided she'd had enough. Not one to give away or sell things, she had boxed it all up and put it in the closet for safe keeping.

He noticed her hesitation and asked softly, "What is it?"

"Nothing, I just remembered something I have that you may enjoy," her tone was light and playful again and he relaxed completely. "Megamind, do you play video games?"

He snorted, "I hardly think that is a productive use of my intelligence."

"Okay," she started, "well, since we are cooped up here and you're bored, do you want to give one a try?"

He looked at the floor, then out the window and then back at her, a pained expression on his face, as if she was asking him to play with a baby toy. He didn't respond verbally.

"C'monnnnnn, I think you'll like this game," she pleaded with him, giving him a puppy-dog pouty face.

He let out an overdramatic sigh, "Fine. As long as it is not one of those stupid games where the point is to kill as many people as you can."

She laughed heartily at his request. "No, no. Nothing like that. It's a music game."

His interest was piqued and he looked at her expectantly, "What kind of music?"

"Mostly rock, some pop, some country, and some other things." She realized she had him intrigued and didn't want to chance him losing interest so she said, "I'll go get the game stuff, hang on." She stood and walked to the closet in the hallway leading to the stairs to her bedroom. The boxes were a little buried since they had been in the closet for almost three years, but she was able to get to them without too much trouble. Hefting the boxes in her arms, she walked back to the living room and saw her fiancé sitting on her couch in his hazard-symbol PJ's, complete with tall popped collar and silky black and blue cape tied around his shoulders, waiting impatiently, his foot tapping on the carpet. 'He really is a big kid,' she thought, which brought a tender smile to her face.

She placed the box with the console in it in front of the TV and opened it. Removing the console and its wires, she looked back at her fiancé and asked condescendingly, "Do you think you can handle hooking this up to the TV?"

He glared at her like she had said something offensive, but the sparkle in his eye gave away his enjoyment at being teased by her. "Pshhh. Stand aside woman!" His playful bravado always made her laugh.

She stood and then took the box that contained the game and guitar controller, walked to the couch and sat down. She watched as her favorite alien began to set up the gaming device momentarily before she opened the box on her lap. She removed the body and fret board, both still attached to the strap, and assembled the controller, inserting batteries so it would work. She pushed the button to turn the controller on, set it on the couch and stood up with the game in her hand.

Megamind had quickly finished with his task and the console sat ready as she approached him and handed the disc to him. He looked at the disc and read dubiously, "Goowee-tar Hero?" She nodded and grinned at him, not bothering to correct his pronunciation.

He shrugged and placed the disc in the tray, pushed the tray in, then turned back to Roxanne. "I'll play a song or two for you but I think you'll get the hang of it quickly."

He gaped at her, "Play? What do you mean play a song or two?"

She smirked. He was so sheltered. "You'll see." She picked up the guitar controller and put the strap over her head so it was draped over one shoulder. After picking up the remote, she turned the volume up on the TV. She dropped the remote back on the couch and loaded her saved game and went into the Quick Play menu, selecting a song she thought would suitably impress him and setting the difficulty level to Medium. The chosen venue loaded on the screen: the Ozzfest, of course.

She had a momentary panic attack when she looked up and saw her own custom character on the screen. The avatar was wearing a vest, with matching short skirt, gloves and boots... and they were all black leather and covered in spikes. Her custom guitar was all black with a stylized blue lightning bolt. She motioned for him to stand next to her as the song began to play. He didn't say anything about her character, but she saw his eyebrow raise when he looked at the screen.

"All aboard! hahahahaha..."

His head turned rapidly as he gazed from the TV to her and back again, excited but not knowing what to expect. He thought Roxanne looked incredibly hot standing there ready to play the guitar, even if it was plastic and fake.

"Aye, aye, aye, aye, aye, aye"

His eyes glued themselves to the TV, fascinated, as she began to click the guitar. The colored things he saw riding down the fret board on the screen burst into flames as they reached the bottom of the screen. The song sounded perfect to his ears, so he began to suspect that this fake guitar wasn't really playing anything at all until he heard a "dink" sound when she missed a note. Now completely intrigued, he took a few steps away from her and then turned to look at her. He chuckled at what he saw.

She was staring intently at the screen, with her mouth open and making some of the strangest expressions he had ever seen. He watched as she pushed the buttons on the fret board that corresponded with the colors on the screen and clicked the lever of the controller in time with the music. This would certainly not be a difficult thing to master, but he could see that it would take some finesse.

Suddenly, she lifted the fret board side of the controller and then quickly returned it to its original position. He looked back at the TV, and saw that the screen had changed to show lightning coming out from under the fret board and all of the colored things were all blue.

He noticed her clicking-hand moving rapidly back and forth sometimes and wondered what she was doing. The colored thing on the screen was long and wavy and moved as she moved her hand, so he would have to ask her about that once she finished. This was definitely going to be fun! He returned to watching the TV until Ozzy finished singing the last of "Crazy Train".

"You're right, Roxanne! That does look like fun!" She grinned at his over-excited expression. Turning back to the TV, she navigated the game back to the Quick Play menu.

"Do you need me to play another track for you?"

"No, I think I've got the basics now," he replied, rubbing his hands together eagerly. She pulled the strap of the controller over her head and handed it to him by the neck of the guitar.

"Ok, well you should probably start on the Easy difficulty setting at least until you learn the game." He looked at her with his offended expression and she giggled.

"Pssssh. You play on Medium, so I will learn to play on Hard!" he declared with a grand gesture and then started to position and adjust the strap to fit around his shoulders. He took a moment to familiarize himself with the controller, placing his hands the way he had seen hers. He discovered what she had been doing with moving her hand rapidly when he found the "whammy" bar. He moved it a few times experimentally.

She was still laughing at him. "Well ok," she teased in between laughs, "it's your funeral!"

He harrumphed and returned his gaze to the TV to select his first song. He scrolled through the list and decided on a song. "Shi-sim," he read, and then added, "now how could a tool record music?"

"That's Schism, and Tool is a band. A very good hard rock band, actually, and given your taste in music, I am surprised you haven't heard of them."

"Well, the only music I had to listen to growing up in the prison was whatever the Warden kept there. They were apparently not a part his collection. I haven't really branched out from those few groups," he explained solemnly.

"Oh," she said, "well if you like this song, there are two more by them in this game."

He nodded and selected the song, intrigued by the title and the name of the band. He selected Hard difficulty and stood ready to show up Roxanne at her own game. She knew that the song he picked was almost impossible to play on EASY let alone MEDIUM difficulty, so she figured he would fail out in the first few moments.

He surprised her and not only finished the song, but received a 95% score, having only missed a few notes in the beginning as he rapidly taught himself how to play the game. "That was fantastic!" he said enthusiastically. He grinned widely at her and swelled his chest in pride at his accomplishment.

She eyed him suspiciously and crossed her arms over her chest, "Have you played this before?"

"No."

"Mmmmm hmmmm," she said like she knew better. "I'm not buying it, Megamind."

"I didn't ask you to buy anything," he said momentarily confused by her euphemism. Then he saw her expression and sighed. "Roxanne, is it so hard for you to believe that this," he gestured to his large cranium, "brain would be able to quickly figure out how to play a mere ga-"

"Ok, ok, I believe you," she interrupted him, dropping to the couch in a fit of the giggles. She loved when he got overly dramatic explaining something because his gorgeous green eyes danced with excitement, and he was so serious she couldn't help but laugh.

He grinned at her widely, and then turned back to the game and picked another song to play. She remained sitting on the couch and watched him play several songs, each time getting closer and closer to making 100% accuracy. Not surprised but still amazed at her blue genius, she shook her head in disbelief as he mastered the game in no time at all. It had taken her beating the game on the Easy setting before she even thought about trying Medium. Hard or Expert - God forbid! - had never even crossed her mind.

She watched him for more than an hour, as he became bolder and the performer in him came out, and of course the cape he was wearing added to the presentation. He started dancing around while he was strumming, putting on quite the show just for her. She watched him, laughing and enjoying his antics as much as he was. Her cheeks were quivering and her face started hurting from smiling and laughing so much.

After a while, he stopped dancing but kept right on playing. She settled down back into the couch to watch him, enjoying the music. Before long, her eyes closed and her head started to droop. Not wanting to sleep on the couch, she stood up.

Having incorrectly assumed that she had fallen asleep on the couch, Megamind missed a note when he saw that she was suddenly standing next to him. He recovered quickly.

"I think I am going to go lay down in the bedroom," she said to him, and then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. He leaned into her kiss, but kept playing perfectly, so she just padded her way back down the hallway and up the stairs to her bedroom.

She climbed into the bed and snuggled under the covers, falling quickly asleep. After an undetermined amount of time, she felt a draft at her back and then a weight on the bed behind her. She woke up a little more when a strong thin arm found its way around her waist followed by a warm body being pressed against her back and warm breath in her ear.

"Hey," she said in the gravelly voice of sleep as she snuggled back against him.

He kissed her neck behind her ear. "Mmmm." He lay there, holding her tightly and she was on the verge of falling back asleep when he spoke again, "So, that video game character of yours. Named Megan, and created a little under three years ago. You did create that character, right?" His voice was low and quiet, and he spoke directly into her ear, his warm breath sending shivers down her spine.

Suddenly, she was wide awake. As rapidly as the fog of sleep had lifted, she had decided not to play coy with this one. She wanted him to know this, and especially since had asked about it. Turning her head towards his, she said sweetly, "Yes." She finished turning around in his embrace, with an innocent smile on her face; she wanted to look him in the eye. The electric green of his eyes practically glowed in the moonlight coming in from the large window in her bedroom. She wrapped her arm around his waist and scooted closer, intertwining their legs.

"But I was still kidnapping you under the mistaken impression that you were Metro _Mahn's_ girlfriend three years ago," he stated matter-of-factly, but tightened his arm around her at the same time. His green eyes were wide and so entrancing that she momentarily forgot they were talking. She would stay lost in those eyes for hours if he would let her.

Finally, she inhaled and kissed his nose, never breaking eye contact with him. "Correct again." She was glad he had asked about this. Perhaps it was Fate that decided on the series of events that had led up to her pulling that game out for him to play. Whatever it was, she was grateful because she was pretty sure she was about to make his day, and she _really_ loved it when she could make him happy.

"What does that mean?" As usual with things of a romantic nature, he was hopeful but wary, always slightly protective of himself. He was getting more and more accustomed to the love she showed him, but he still wasn't completely used to the positive attention.

She saw the familiar look in his eye, bit her lip thoughtfully for a moment, and then said deliberately, "That must mean that I was attracted to you, and that I liked your style even back then." She had admitted to herself that she'd been attracted to her longtime kidnapper for years, and well before their feelings were common knowledge to each other.

His whole face lit up. "You did?"

She couldn't help but smile at him. Then she pressed her lips to his in a long sweet series of kisses, welts forgotten along with the itching. She pulled back a fraction of an inch and looked into his eyes again, now half-lidded with desire for her. "Yes." This time, he was the one that started the kissing.


End file.
